Executive and Professional Development

Facilitators

Our EPD course facilitators are leaders in their fields, chosen from the Sobey School of Business and the local corporate community. Programs in partnership with the Schulich Executive Education Centre at York University provide the opportunity to meet instructors from other areas of Canada. Collectively, their experience, research and consulting expertise represent the most current business practices, skills, and strategies available. All of this knowledge is yours to apply once you’ve completed your training and returned to your workplace.

Bridget Brownlow, BA, MA, Con. Res. Cert.

Bridget Brownlow is the Conflict Resolution Advisor for Saint Mary’s University. She is a certified conflict resolution specialist and has over 20 years of extensive experience in organizational conflict management. Her expertise is focused on delivering a wide range of alternative dispute resolution services, training and education designed for employees, faculty, management and unions at all levels within the organization.

For the past thirteen years, Bridget has been the Senior Coordinator for an international conflict resolution initiative in Northern Ireland. This involves development and implementation of peace education programs in collaboration with Peaceful Schools International and Saint Mary’s University. She is currently a Director on the Board of Peaceful Schools International and teaches part-time in the Departments of Political Science and Irish Studies at Saint Mary’s University.

Brenda Fair, BA, CPHR

Brenda has been a principal of Fairwinds Training and Development since 1995 and in that time has worked with many local and national businesses and organizations. A graduate of Acadia University, Brenda received her Certified Human Resources Professional designation through the Canadian Council of Human Resources Associations in 2001.

Brenda has served as a Director for both the Human Resources Association of Nova Scotia and the Halifax Chamber of Commerce. She is currently the Past Commodore of the Cheema Aquatic Club, a globally recognized Sprint Canoe and Kayak racing club, home to six Olympians.

Brenda focuses her client work in the areas of leadership, organizational and team development. In addition, she provides HR consulting services and training in many other content areas. She believes in an interactive, learner centred approach in her classroom and strives to create an atmosphere that is enjoyable as well as informative.

Michael Kennedy, BSc, CAE, MEd

Michael is an independent contractor delivering education in leadership and management. A retired Lieutenant-Colonel, he served thirty-one years with the Canadian Armed Forces. His numerous leadership and staff positions included Commanding Officer (CO) of 404 Maritime Patrol & Training Squadron, CO of the CF Academy of Leadership & Languages, and Senior Staff Officer Directorate of Flight Safety. His last posting was as the Deputy CO of the Maritime Warfare Centre. Suffering a back injury, he took a medical release in 2004.

Michael managed business plans, budgets, operations and personnel. He conducted numerous personal evaluations, as well as coaching and counselling members on performance. He conducted summary trials, Boards of Inquiry and grievance hearings. He investigated harassment allegations. He served as a panel member of a court-martial. He has seen the good, the bad and the mediocre.

A passion for continuous learning led him to return to university earning a Certificate in Adult Education and a Master of Education. He also qualified as a practitioner in the MBTI and Personality Dimensions (temperament model). Since 2004, he has worked with companies profit and non-profit and government agencies across Canada improving leadership, management and communication skills. His sessions are informative, interactive and make you think deeply.

Rose Landry, BA, MPA

Rose has over 25 years progressive experience working on and leading policy, governance and management initiatives; advising and coaching leaders, and mentoring and training professionals at every level of the not-for-profit, private and public sectors.

She is the owner and Principal Consultant of Landry & Associates Management Consulting, a boutique consulting firm that specializes in governance, policy, structure and management. For over 20 years, she and her firm have been providing consulting and advisory services, including: strategic planning; policy development, implementation, review, and evaluation; and organizational analysis and design, to clients in Nova Scotia and across Canada.

In addition to her work as a practitioner and consultant, Rose has been involved in education and training throughout her career. Beginning with the World University Service of Canada in 1991, developing and managing training programs for physicians and surgeons from the PRC; later with Dalhousie University as the author and instructor for Henson College’s course Organizational Structure & Design; throughout her career as a consultant designing and delivering training in key areas such as Policy and Change Management; and more recently with Executive and Professional Development, Sobey School of Business, Saint Mary’s University, developing and delivering policy development and implementation courses.

Over the course of her career Rose has developed a deep appreciation for the opportunities and challenges facing organizations, and a love of working with clients to access and manage them.

Alex Lowy, BA, MES

Alex Lowy consults widely as a strategic advisor and educator, helping organizations address major dilemmas in a systematic and effective manner. Clients, from the resource, banking and government sectors, enthusiastically draw on his assistance and methods, describing his work as deeply strategic and insightful. Alex began in the public sector as the Director of Training & Development at the City of Toronto. Following this, he joined Shell Canada, designing and launching high performance work sites. Alex co-founded The Alliance for Converging Technologies consulting firm, serving a global client list. He oversaw the global implementation of e-business strategies for the firm’s clients. Alex is co-author of several best-selling business books including The Power of the 2 x 2 Matrix, and Digital Capital. His most recent book No Problem, is being taught in business schools around the world.

Matt MacPhee, MSc.

Matt is a senior project manager at the Saint Mary’s University Entrepreneurship Centre and part-time faculty member in the Management and Marketing Departments at Saint Mary’s University. He has a Masters degree in Industrial Organizational Psychology and several international coaching and consulting certifications, including a certification in Innovation Education from Babson College, the top Entrepreneurship school in the US.

Matt has trained and coached hundreds of businesses across Atlantic Canada over the last eight years, conducted several policy research projects in various areas of Atlantic Canadian economic development, and is interested in working with young growth-oriented companies. In particular, Matt works with growth companies to help them develop new products or new markets for existing products by using innovation and value proposition methodology that puts the customer first. Matt has recently been specializing in customer validation activities, learning how and why customers use the products they do.

As a part-time faculty in the Sobey School of Business at Saint Mary’s University, Matt has taught eight different courses over the last five years to hundreds of students, specializing in management, organizational behaviour and marketing. Matt’s teaching philosophy is to use real world examples both from his own consulting practice and the wider world of business to illustrate topics at hand, and then reinforce those ideas through hands-on innovation-focused activities. Matt prefers to teach process over content so that participants will leave with new skills they can apply to their own organizations. With this in mind, he often spends as much time explaining the ‘why’ behind an activity so that participants feel more comfortable bringing a process back to their team. Matt’s teaching style is relaxed and informal and he believes that professional development should be as two-way as possible to capitalize on the expertise of the participants as much as possible.

Sandra Martyn, PMP

Sandra is President of The Martyn Group, a private consulting and training company specializing in project management. Spanning 25 years Sandra consistently receives the highest ratings for the value she provides in her courses across Canada. Adhering to methodologies defined by The Project Management Institute, she combines project management theory with “real life” experiences, making difficult project management concepts seem easy as she delivers her training in clear and understandable terms. Sandra loves what she does and that is clearly evident in her enthusiasm and humor in sharing her knowledge.

Sandra has developed courses in project management fundamentals, PMP® exam preparation, implementing a project management office, managing multiple projects, using Microsoft Project, as well as the Certificate in Comprehensive Project Management, an 8 day program, at Saint Mary’s University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. In addition, she participates in the Certificate in Business Skills for Managers program, at York University, Toronto. She has also authored and facilitates courses for the health care industry, as well as social services, and clinical leaders.Her courses are considered some of the most highly rated courses for several universities across Canada. Sandra is also on the program advisory committee for the Graduate Certificate.

donalee Moulton, BA

donalee is our resident wordsmith. As a communications specialist, award-winning writer and freelance journalist with more than 25 years’ experience, donalee facilitates many of our writing-related courses including Editing Essentials, Writing Skills for Plain Language, and Grammar, Punctuation and Proofreading Boot Camp. For donalee, communicating effectively in writing (or any other way) is about much more than finding the right word. It’s about understanding your audience and tailoring a message to meet their needs – and ultimately yours. That’s why, for example, she recommends not starting emails to your boss with “Yo Dawg.” (donalee also believes that learning should be filled with laughter.) In her spare time, you can find donalee digging into the New York Times Crossword or out unearthing misplaced modifiers.

Michael E. Petitpas, BEd, CRCert

Michael is Principal of Clear Resolutions, Conflict Management Services as well as Senior Conflict Management Practitioner with the Conflict Resolution Centre Atlantic, CFB Halifax. He was previously the Acting Director of the Office of Early Conflict Resolution with Veterans Affairs Canada. In 2008 Michael was awarded the highest Civilian Award for an employee, the Deputy Minister’s Commendation, for Significant Contribution to Employee Well-being and a Respectful Workplace.

Michael has 20 years’ experience as a Certified Mediator and Senior Conflict Management Practitioner. This includes providing services in mediation, facilitation, coaching, group processes and training. As a member of the Inter-governmental Shared Mediator Program, he provided services to several government departments, mentored and helped assess new mediators to the program.

In the past ten years, Michael has had extensive training and experience in dealing with groups in conflict. Group intervention training has included Transformative Justice Australia Conferencing, Group Conflict Intervention, Transformative Teambuilding, Circle Processes and Peacemaking.

Michael has designed and presented hundreds of customized workshops for both private and public sector organizations including: Communication, Change Management, Negotiation, Leadership, and Instructional and Facilitation Techniques for Classroom Instructors.

To his workshops, Michael brings enthusiasm, passion, and a sense of humor to create an interactive and experiential learning environment.

Michael has a Bachelor of Education Degree from the University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, a Certificate in Conflict Resolution from the University of Prince Edward Island, and a Certificate in Teaching Negotiation in the Corporation from the Project on Negotiation, Harvard University.

Debi Peverill, BComm, CPA, CA

Debi Peverill is a veteran speaker known for her sense of humour and the depth of her financial knowledge. She holds a Bachelor in Commerce (Honours in Accounting) from Dalhousie University and a Chartered Accountant designation from the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants. She spent ten years with national accounting firms before founding her own public accounting firm, Peverill & Associates, in 1988. SBR Communications was founded in 1998 to separate the growing volume of training and speaking business from the accounting practice. In March 2006, SBR published Debi’s first book, Organize So That The Taxes Don’t Kill You, a primer on income tax for business owners and managers.

Debi has been teaching certificate and diploma courses at Saint Mary's University for many years. She has also provided financial training to participants of the HRDC Self Employed Assistance program, and facilitated taxation seminars for a number of community groups and the general public. The feedback from previous participants testifies that Debi presents what appear to be boring or complicated topics in an easy to understand and humorous manner.

Stephanie Lummis , BBA

Stephanie Lummis is a seasoned User Experience (UX) strategist and practitioner with over 20 years of experience. She works closely with clients to understand their business and craft customer-centric experiences that focus on measurable results.

Before launching her own consulting practise in the Fall of 2017, Stephanie spent 12 years as a User Experience Lead providing strategic consulting in: digital strategy and transformation; user experience and usability; information architecture; accessibility; content strategy and web writing; and, web governance. Prior to this, Stephanie spent 10 years in Vancouver, as EMarketing Manager with a corporate email service provider, then Product Manager of a visual search engine. Her industry experience ranges from government and economic development to tourism to post secondary education.

Stephanie loves to share her knowledge and was a lecturer for the first post-secondary Internet marketing degree program in North America at the University of British Columbia. She has created, developed and taught client workshops in areas of analytics, web writing and content strategy. She has presented at many national conferences on topics including web writing, mobile user experience, content strategy, usability and content governance.

Stephanie has been a volunteer role model with Techsploration for the past 10 years. She has a Business Administration degree from Acadia University.

Ravi Tangri, MSc, MBA

Ravi Tangri is the Chief Rocket Scientist for Chrysalis Strategies Inc. and the author of Leading Authentically and Stress-Costs Stress-Cures. He has facilitated strategic and operational planning for the private, public and not-for-profit sectors across this country and helped organizations large and small achieve lasting results. He is a Certified Speaking Professional (CSP), which is the highest earned professional designation for speaking excellence, held by fewer than 10% of all professional speakers worldwide.

Ravi taps his first career in nuclear physics to create breakthrough results for his coaching and corporate clients. His understanding of chaos theory and complexity allows him to see hidden patterns and leverage points to catalyze personal and corporate change. While he uses quantum physics to create innovation, his solutions are refreshingly easy to understand and use.

Sylvie Thibault, BA, MBA

Sylvie is a bilingual leadership capacity builder and seasoned management professional with a proven track record in developing individuals, teams, businesses, and associations in both the private and public sectors.

Sylvie holds an Executive MBA, as well as a Bachelor of Arts degree from Saint Mary’s University. She also studied at the University of Ottawa and the University of Manitoba where she completed the coursework for the Master’s Degree in Linguistics. Sylvie is also a Certified Trainer with Emploi‐Québec.

Sylvie has been a value-added partner of Fairwinds Training and Development Inc. since 2007 and has been highly praised as a coach, trainer, consultant and facilitator. Prior to joining Fairwinds, she spent over a decade in the information technology industry where she managed operations, provided in-house training and coaching to managers and employees, and facilitated the strategic planning process.

As a senior business consultant, she brings a wealth of hands-on knowledge that she accumulated while tackling business challenges in environments ranging from small private start-up companies to publicly-traded large global organizations.

As a trainer and facilitator, her style is dynamic with an emphasis on hands-on learning. She is passionate about personal and professional development and enjoys the synergy that takes place when facilitator and participants share knowledge and experiences.

Terry H. Wagar, LLB, PhD

Terry H. Wagar is a Professor of Human Resource Management / Industrial Relations at Saint Mary's University in Halifax. He was a Research Associate at the National Institute of Labour Studies, Flinders University of South Australia and has also taught at the University of South Australia, Wilfrid Laurier University, and the University of Western Australia. Terry's degrees include an MBA from the University of Toronto, a Master of Industrial Relations from Queen's University, an LLB from the University of Ottawa Law School, and a PhD in labour relations, human resource management and statistics / research methods from Virginia Tech.

During the 2002-2003 academic year, he was a Visiting Professor at the Gatton College of Business and Economics, University of Kentucky. In 2002 and 2004, he was a Visiting Scholar at the University of Waikato Management School in Hamilton, New Zealand. During the 2008-09 school year, Terry was on sabbatical -- he spent Fall 2008 as a Visiting Professor at Queen's University and from January to July 2009, he was a Visiting Professor / Research Fellow at the University of Western Australia.

In 2006, Terry received the International Personnel Management Association (Canada) President's Award. The President's Award is IPMA-Canada's highest award and is presented to an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to the practice of human resources management in Canada. Other awards include the Excellence in Education Award from the U.S. Labor and Employment Relations Association (LERA), the Distinguished Teacher Award from the Association of Atlantic Universities (Award for Excellence in Teaching), and the Leaders in Management Education Award (sponsored by National Post, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and Bell Nexxia). His research has been published in Canada, the United States, Europe, Asia, Australia and New Zealand.

Crane Wood Stookey

Crane Wood Stookey is a Tall Ship officer and leadership coach with over 20 years experience of leadership and workforce engagement on ships at sea. He is the founder of the Nova Scotia Sea School, and was awarded the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal for the Sea School’s contribution to Canadian Society.

Since 2006 he has used his “crew-building” and mental performance skills to help leaders achieve better performance and deeper commitment for their people, through greater mastery of their own personal leadership practice.

Crane holds a Masters degree in architecture from Harvard, and ran his own architectural practice in Boston before going to sea professionally. He is faculty at the ALIA Institute for Authentic Leadership in Action, and has published a new book, Keep Your People in the Boat: Workforce Engagement Lessons from the Sea. He has also taught mindfulness meditation for more than 25 years. Crane moved to Nova Scotia from the US in 1994, and says it’s the best move he’s ever made.